Gaming Consoles

PS3blu ray, 3D, no hidden costs, more quality exclusives than the other consoles,

I don't even like 3D, but PS3 has the most games in 3D so that's cool.

People overstate how important "social gaming" is and favor the Xbox 360. It's like AOL instant messenger in its heyday. It may be hot now, but in general it's just kind of the same old song and dance. I love playing CoD just as much as the next guy, but I also like story games and don't need to only play with friends to have a good time. There are other types of games than just FPS. Just like how people would say that they were bored on the computer back in the day because no one was online to chat with. Play something else, doing the same thing over and over is....well it's boring.

I agree 100%. I started off as a PC gamer - I still believe this is the best MMORPG, RPG, and 1st person shooter experience. But I'm also a big sports game fan - and those have almost completely dropped out of the PC market. That leaves you with Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3. The Wii is a great family device. If you have young kids or old grandparents you want to keep entertained the Wii is the way to go. It's a gimic device - but it's better than Kinetic( gdgt.com­/question­/is­-microsoft­-working­-on­-solving­-... ). Xbox 360 and PS3, the merits of each of these could be argued day and night. I opted to go Xbox 360 because that's where my friends were.

I own both PS3 and Xbox 360, and I say both earn an equally top-spot for me. Both had some ups and downs.

In terms of new exclusive games, the PS3 had some nice ones to make PlayStation fans happy: We had Infamous 2, Killzone 3, Resistance 3, Socom 4, and of course, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. And there was other games that interest core/hardcore gamers, like LittleBigPlanet 2, Motorstorm Apocalypse, and Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One.However, if you ask anybody else that don't play PlayStation titles, they'd likely not care at all for a majority of the games I mentioned. Still, that's an impressive list compared to the exclusives on Xbox 360 in 2011 (minus all the Kinect games): There was Forza Motorsport 4, Gears of War 3, and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. And for most people: Those last 2 are enough to make gamers happy for their Xbox.

But then, of course, Sony had their hacking incident earlier this year, leaving PlayStation gamers offline for weeks and personal information compromised. A real hard hit for them this year.

Xbox sure had a growing year, however: Thanks to Kinect, many more people wanted a 360. The new dashboard was nice too, bringing in new media-streaming options, cloud storage, and other things like more Facebook sharing and "beacons & activity", as well as a more integrated Kinect experience with the menus and apps. While it's nice having new apps like YouTube and iHeartRadio on your TV and accessible with Kinect, it's still kinda silly to only have this available when you pay for the XBL Gold subscription for pretty much services you can easily access for free elsewhere, like right on your computer.

It's nice that Microsoft is trying to make the most out of your Xbox Live Gold membership, but I still feel that PlayStation Plus is better: For the price I pay regularly to subscribe, I get free games and content along with some great discounts. Not to mention that cloud storage for PS+ was just introduced last year. According to Sony, their first year offered 50 free games, 100+ free DLC, and over $800 in savings. If there's anything Microsoft should have to make me feel like I'm getting the most out of my subscription, they should bring back 1 vs 100 to Xbox Live (I loved that game).

The thing I like about PS3 is the amount of stuff you can do for free. This 2011, Sony really added to that with the addition of 2 free-to-play MMOs Free Realms and the previously pay-only DC Universe Online, both of which from Sony Online Entertainment. Sony also upgraded PlayStation Home's core experience in the fall of 2011 to bring more free games to play within Home. Although, again: Most people would probably not even care about any of those 3 that I've just mentioned.

In terms of motion-control, there wasn't much going on for PS3's PlayStation Move. While I love just how precise the controller is, there hasn't been much games that make you say "Man, I should get a Move." On the other side: Xbox's Kinect has been huge this year. Quite a bit of games released this year...Though not too many are of top-notch quality. And hell: Not much Kinect titles out there to appeal to the core/hardcore Xbox gamer. Sure, Kinect games are fun, but not all are terribly fantastic. The only great games for Kinect, personally has to be Harmonix's Dance Central & Dance Central 2. It's nice that Kinect got more support on the dashboard and there's more media content to control using my hands and voice, but still: Kinect's tracking is still not perfect and still feels a bit messy at times.

Looking through all that I typed, I would put the PS3 slightly higher than the 360. If it wasn't for the hacking earlier in 2011, I probably would have PlayStation 3 far higher up at the top, but that incident deeply brought it down to around where I'd put the Xbox now.Either way: I've enjoyed gaming on both systems this year. If you leave me withe either one, I'd be happy, yet a part of me will still want to play with the other one...

PS3 no doubt. As nitehawk wrote. Better quality games, 3D, Divx, Blu ray, online services free. As it is still powerful machine today in console I think they has a plan to make some extra device to make it even better.

Going to respectively disagree. So, yeah, I own a PS3. But just looking at this year, I'd say 360. I don't feel like 3D has taken off yet. PS3 has always had BluRay and free online services so that's not new. As ZeroC4 said, prices and Kinect made Xbox 360 the champ for the year and I agree. I also cite empirical data! We now own a 360 too!

As far as actual improvements/achievements in 2011 I would have to go with the Xbox 360 seeing as Kinect is finally making headway in the gaming community. The new dashboard with Kinect integration also looks pretty awesome.